Seoul City Provides “Baby Box” and Vaccination Subsidies to Single Parents

Single Mothers Benefit From New Scheme – But Not All

Through an initiative of the Women & Family Policy Bureau, Seoul City will become South Korea’s first municipality to offer single mothers in financial difficulties with 1 million KRW (approx. 800 EUR / 900 USD) worth of baby materials.

The “Baby Box” will contain the following items donated by manufacturers and individual funders:

A stroller

Feeding bottles

A baby sling

Clothes

Formula for infants

Sleeping vests

However, the supply is limited, and only 100 single mothers living in the Seoul Metropolitan Area with 80% of the median income will be able to benefit from the scheme.

A Wider Vaccination Coverage Expands Number of Free Vaccinations for Children from 17 to 23

However, the City Government will provide a subsidy worth 240,000 KRW (180 EUR / 220 USD) for infant vaccinations, to children living with single mothers and single fathers. The subsidy covers vaccinations outside the 17 mandatory vaccinations.

Back in the 1990s and Beyond…

When I was vaccinated (I was born in 1990), the regulations must have been different. Because I have had chickenpox – thanks to a German family who decided that their chickenpox-ridden child could not miss school (she was sent home immediately by the homeroom teacher, but it was already too late). Which later also gave me shingles (“Herpes Zoster”, which can caused by having had chickenpox before the age of 18). The HPV vaccine was also not considered mandatory, and today is administered to women only for free – men must pay the full price, and the vaccine is only advertised at OB-GYNs.

Tuberculosis remains rampant for an OECD country. Every year since 2014, I’ve had to take a TB test: In Seoul (to apply for a visa), in France, in Belgium, in the Netherlands. Poor housing regulations and lack of social housing drives South Korea’s poorest to live in mouldy attics or basements (which are let out at market prices).

My mother has a friend who has suffered from polio. In her generation (she is in her fifties), tuberculosis and polio were much more common than they are today.

I’ll write an article on TB and South Korea in a separate post in the upcoming weeks.

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Internationally lost since 2000, Emily was born in Seoul, raised in India, and has been living and studying in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands since 2014. A translator and interpreter by profession, she enjoys talking and debating just about anything.

About

Internationally lost since 2000, Emily was born in Seoul, raised in India, and has been living and studying in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands since 2014. A translator and interpreter by profession, she enjoys talking and debating just about anything.